This position is located in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Science and Technology Directorate. The mission is geared towards anticipating future threats to civil transportation security. Programs are conducted that accelerate and expand promising technologies to the point of operational test and evaluation. This is an interdisciplinary position that can be filled as any of the following: Supervisory General Engineer, GS-0801-15 or Supervisory Physical Scientist, GS-1301-15.

Duties

As a Interdisciplinary Supervisory General Engineer/Supervisory Physical Scientist, GS-0801/1301-15, your typical work assignments may include: Managing the staff including planning work to be accomplished by subordinates, setting, and adjusting short-term priorities, and preparing schedules for completion of work, setting, and reviewing personnel performance goals, and exploring ways to improve production or increase the quality of the work directed. Reviewing DHS components' research, development, and acquisition programs to ensure that their Standards programs are structured to provide accurate, timely, and essential information to decision makers for programs in all acquisition categories throughout the system lifecycle. Performing requirements analysis of DHS acquisition and R&D programs and develops plans, budgets, policy, and guidance to ensure necessary standards are identified or developed to support DHS requirements. Advising leadership and components of new or changes in public law that affect the DHS Standards mission, and recommends changes in Departmental Standards policy, as appropriate. All DHS-HQ announcements have a 5 business day open period due to the number of applications received. View common definitions of terms found in this announcement: Common Definitions.

Requirements

• You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this position.
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for Selective Service.
• You must successfully pass a background investigation.
• You will be required to undergo pre-appointment drug testing for illegal drug use. Employment is contingent upon favorable results.
• You may be required to serve a one-year probationary period.
• Applying to this announcement certifies that you give permission for DHS to share your application with others in DHS for similar positions.
• You will need to set up direct deposit so we can pay you.
• This position is eligible for telework based on agency policy.
• New supervisors/managers must successfully complete a 1-year probationary period.
• This position requires you to have access, safeguard, and store classified national security information on a regular basis. You must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance.
• This is not a bargaining unit position.

Qualifications

Specialized Experience: You qualify for the GS-15 grade level if you possess one year of specialized experience, equivalent to the GS-14 grade level in the Federal government, performing duties such as: 1) Developing policy and technical guidance to improve the quality of assigned programs; 2) Creating investment plans and budget proposals to ensure sufficient infrastructure is available to meet program requirements; 3) Representing the department in committees and Congressional hearings regarding infrastructure and resource policy for research and/or technology areas (i.e. radiological- nuclear, chemical, biological, non-nuclear explosives, communications, nuclear explosives, communications interoperability, infrastructure, maritime, border security, etc.); 4) Performing the full range of supervisory duties (i.e. assigning work, evaluating performance, recommending personnel actions, etc.). Substitution of education in lieu of specialized experience may not be used for this grade level. All qualifications and eligibility requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Current or Former Political Appointees: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

Education

Applicants must possess the basic education requirements for the GS-0801, General Engineer Series:

A. Successful completion of a degree in Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by ABET; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics.

-OR-

B. Combination of education and experience -- college-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:

1. Professional registration or licensure -- Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT)1, or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.

2. Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

3. Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A.

4. Related curriculum -- Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a bachelor's degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions. (The above examples of related curricula are not all-inclusive.)

Applicants must possess the basic education requirements for the GS-1301, General Physical Science Series:
A. Degree: physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics.

-OR-
B. Combination of education and experience -- education equivalent to one of the majors shown in A above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications; applicant's resumes and supporting documentation should only reflect education received from schools accredited by such institutions. Applicants can verify accreditation at the following Website: https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home.

If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency (a U.S. private organization's interpretation that such education has been deemed at least equivalent to conventional U.S. education programs) with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For more information regarding evaluation of foreign education for federal employment, please visit the U.S. Department of Education webpage on the Recognition of Foreign Qualifications.

Contacts

• Address Department of Homeland Security Headquarters OCHCO/HRMS/MS #0170 6595 Springfield Center Drive Springfield, VA 20598-0170 US
• Name: Jenny Kern
• Phone: (912) 267-3100
• Email: [email protected]